Observations, articles, opinions etc. in Dutch and English. The author, Bert de Bruin (Yonathan Dror Bar-On), is a Dutch-Jewish historian, who has specialized in modern Jewish history and in the history of the Middle East, and who in 1995 emigrated from the Netherlands to Israel. He wrote one book (2008), and edited another (2011), both in Dutch. For feedback please post a comment, or send this blog's author an email: (hisdutchname)atyahoodotcom

Sunday, December 30, 2007

When I read that yet another Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed by Israel without any innocent bystander being seriously hurt, for a moment I feel some weird, nationalist kind of pride, excitement and satisfaction. Those feelings are very well expressed by Bradley Burston in this article, which has a conclusion that makes a lot of sense: "The Palestinians have a choice to make. They can be ruled by the mentality of the seventh grader, the kid with a heart full of fresh, unsullied ideals and a head full of hormones. Or they can begin to think about the future like adults.Thanks to the Jihad and to Hamas, the real martyr is no longer the poor kid who goes to kill himself for a few dinars and a passle of religious lies. At this point, thanks to the Jihad and to Hamas, the real martyr is the cause of Palestine itself. "
It is true, lately the IAF has been highly successful in carrying out so-called targeted killings, with the only victims being terrorists who basically 'asked for it' and 'got what they deserved'. Still, even the air force itself admits that it does not take much for such an assassination to go terribly wrong. When I try to control my own hormones and think again, I find it hard not to agree with Meir Shalev. Shalev, who knows a thing or two about war ( he fought on the Golan Heights in the war of 1967 and shortly after the war was discharged from the army after he had been severely injured ), in fact rightly points out that the rate of success might blind us into believing that there is a military solution to the problems that we have with the Palestinians.
Recently I bought a book by Meir Shalev. I only knew him through his children's books ( for our children I once bought a Dutch translation of his beautiful children's version of some Bible stories ) and his opinion articles. I admire his love for this country and the Hebrew language. Politically he and fellow-writers Grossman, Oz, and Yehoshua have a lot in common, and I often find myself nodding in agreement whenever I read one of their articles. As for Shalev, here are links to some very good articles that he wrote. Good, that is, I mostly or totally agree with his analysis of the reality that we find ourselves in. The articles appear here in random order:

In the end, it is the violin that wins ( December 2004 ) ( "Zionism asked of us to lay the violin aside for some time, to pick up the rifle instead "until things get better". The Territories and all that is involved in holding them have made this into a permanent situation. And here is the real danger. For in the end, it is the violin which wins." )

Israel's lost 40 years ( June 2007 ) ( The author turned out to be quite a prophet when at the end of the Six Day War he said that "We've bit off something that will choke us". He could also qualify as a national physician, since he concludes: "Israel cannot hear anymore, doesn't see well, can't really grasp matters or understand clearly. Worst of all, Israel refuses to undergo the operation that would return it to good health." )

If this story is true, it is a very worrisome and embarrassing - for Europe, that is, no matter who is responsible for hiding the potassium nitrate among the bags of aid - one.
PS: The EU denies it had anything to do with the sugar bags and/or the potassium nitrate.

Whoever is responsible for the murder of Benazir Bhutto ( in my opinion this statement by Israeli PM Olmert is a bit premature and therefore unwise ), I think that this cartoon, by Joep Bertrams, is a very appropriate comment on the death of Mrs Bhutto.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Only now did I read about a terrible tragedy that took place in the small Dutch town Arnemuiden. Four little girls ( Paulien ( 8 ), Melissa ( 7 ), Michelle ( 3 ) and Winnie Lin ( 1 ) ) were asleep in the house above their parents' Chinese restaurant when a fire broke out in the house. All four were killed. Poor girls, and poor, poor parents.

Although I do not celebrate the holiday, I can say that I had a pretty good Christmas so far. This morning I woke up to find an e-mail telling me that a person whom I am very anxious to interview for a book that I am working on will meet me early next month. Then I had what was basically an indirect job interview which was very positive and which might be productive in the not too distant future, if my gut feeling does not deceive me completely. I thought this might be a good day to post what many consider to be the ultimate Christmas song, especially since - if I am not mistaken - this is Shane McGowan's 50th birthday. Congratulations to that wonderful artist ( and champion of self-destruction, sadly enough ).

Monday, December 24, 2007

For heaven's sake, is global warming also affecting people's brains? Al Gore, please come to our rescue and make another movie! What is wrong with people these days, doesn't anybody think properly anymore? An American actor seriously trying to find positive traits in Hitler, an otherwise quite nice Israeli t.v. host totally missing the connection between force and the hardly comfortable situation that we find ourselves in, and now this? Do people really think that a nuclear war can be won? Winning? Like Israel 'won' in both Lebanon wars? God save us from such victories! Did I sleep for almost three months and is it April Fools' Day today?

Talking about stupid ( and about Jackie Levy, which happens to be the name of the mayor of Beth She'an, the brother of David Levy, whom I blogged about yesterday ). Of course force works, Mr Levy. We see that almost daily, when terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Belgium, Spain, the Philippines, Gaza and elsewhere set the national and international political agendas for all of us. Force works when rockets keep falling down on Sderot just as much as it works when Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists ( and the 'occasional' innocent bystander ) get killed by IDF and IAF fire. Force worked when Yitzkak Rabin was murdered, it worked when the settlers were evacuated from Gaza ( there are no settlers anymore over there, right? ) just as much as it works when settlers fight security forces to hold on to outposts that are even more illegal than the settlements ( very few outposts are actually evacuated ).

Last week Yossi Beilin announced that he will not be a contender for the leadership of the Meretz party. Jackie Levy applauds the 'defeat' of Beilin's doctrine, while he regrets the disappearance of Beilin's style, wisdom, honesty and dedication. He should understand that there is a direct connection between that doctrine and that style, wisdom and honesty. Just as much as there is a link between the never-ending use of force and playing the perpetual bully on the one hand, and corruption/occupation/poverty/discrimination/losing wars/brilliant minds leaving the country/hundreds of road deaths a year etc. etc. etc. on the other. For Hamas and other Palestinians the possibility of peace is just as frightening as it is for some Israelis, mostly for reasons that are entirely different, although too many opponents of peace on both sides of the conflict share one motivation: peace would take away their raison d'etre and the way of life/death that they have grown accustomed to ( and/or love so much).

Sunday, December 23, 2007

This is Israel at its best. We all know that there is a serious leadership problem in this country. Good old David Levy also is aware of that problem. How does he think it should be solved? By having a 70-year old never-really-has-been ( himself, that is ) run once more for a seat in the Knesset on the Likud party ticket.
PS: While I do have a certain admiration for Mr Levy, I vaguely remember a brilliant speech by Benny Begin during - I think - one of the campaigns for the leadership of the Likud. David Levy has always claimed to care particularly for one of the most neglected niches of Israeli politics, social issues. Still, when one of the coalitions of which David Levy was to become a member had to be formed he insisted on receiving the - always prestigious and attractive - portfolio of Foreign Affairs, which caused Mr Begin to proclaim ( in a dramatic way that would have made his father proud ) that David Levy wants to serve the interests of - now I paraphrase - the old, the sick and the poor in places like Botswana, Banghladesh and Burkina Faso(*). Like so many politicians - and unlike Benny Begin - David Levy often chose power and plush over principles, which makes him as (un)fit for this country's leadership as any other Israeli politician.
(*) I am not sure, it could also be that he said that David Levy thought he could best serve the interests of Israel's poor and downtrodden in places like.... As I said, I remember the speech only vaguely, but the point remains basically the same.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Once again, sorry for the fact that much or most of what I post here these days refers to other people's work, except for an article in Dutch once in a while. I am still trying to finally finish my thesis, and at the same time I am working on a book which will be published next spring and for which I will be traveling to Holland next month.

The above picture and the story that it tells literally brought tears to my eyes. I found it on the weblog of Lisa Goldman, who in my opinion is the best English-language blogger in Israel. I once had breakfast with her in Tel Aviv, and we will meet again after I return from Holland. Politically we agree on ( almost? ) everything, I believe, and our Zionisms are very much alike. Recently she was the focus of police - and therefore media - attention. I did not write about that because she herself apparently was not allowed to say anything about the investigation, which had to do with the fact that she reported from Lebanon. Last week she wrote extensively about the affair, you can read about it here, here, and here.

Now about the picture. It was made by Natan Dvir and chosen as the photo of the year at the Local Testimony exhibition in Dizengoff Center, Tel Aviv. Lisa quotes the photographer's own description of the story that the picture tells: “ Na’im El’iam (36), a Palestinian resident of the Jabalyah Refugee Camp in Gaza, holds the body of his three-month-old son Muhammad. The body is wrapped in blue cloth. On orders of the security forces, Na’im is standing in the parking lot near Erez Checkpoint, which is closed to traffic due to violent confrontations between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza. Na’im El’iam was trying to get home in order to bury his son, who died of a congenital heart defect in Israel’s Tel Hashomer Hospital, after doctors tried to save his life. The Palestinian father arrived at Erez Checkpoint, the main border crossing between Israel and Gaza, just as it was getting dark - a few minutes after a shooting incident between Hamas fighters and Fatah members who were hiding inside the checkpoint. After waiting for the shooting to end and then for his documents and permits to be checked, Na’im El’iam was permitted to cross the checkpoint to the Palestinian side with his son’s body.” So many sad aspects of the conflict in one heartrending scene.

An article, by minister Yitzhak Herzog, about a book by Martin Gilbert that deals with a little known subject: Winston Churchill and the Jews.

A portrait of a kind of Israelis that many, many years ago got me truly interested in this country and that in my opinion today remains its true pride and hope. Yiftah Spector is a genuine war hero and Zionist. Not unlike others whose opinion I value highly he says that Herzl's type of Zionism has become realized, and now it is time to start realizing the Zionism of Ahad Ha'Am, "who wanted the state to be good and to be a light unto the nations". When asked "What should we do?", Spector replies: "First, we have to end this conflict, which is already ripe for a solution, and demarcate the only possible borders, namely those of 1967. And at the same time, we have to be full partners in the transformation of the Palestinian state into the most successful Arab state in the world, so we will have a good neighbor. And I agree very much with my beloved, in quotation marks, Ehud Olmert, whom I see as the head of the thieves' government - but even thieves sometimes get it right - when he says that if we do not make peace now, we can say good-bye to Israel." Amen to all that.

An interesting article, by one of my favorite Israeli opinion makers, about one of the most beautiful languages that I know.

An article, also by Meir Shalev, about something that continues to amaze me: instead of making sincere efforts to keep here those who are already here the government tries to lure back those who - for many different reasons, most of them entirely legitimate, but that is not the point - chose to live abroad.

An article - in Spanish, a language that I once studied here at the university for two semesters ( twice I received a 100!, I even wrote a paper in Spanish about Franco ) but never really learnt well - about Hugo Chavez' links to and support for Colombian terrorists ( freedom fighters, whatever ). I would not have known about the article if I had not read about it on the website of a Dutch newspaper. By the way, what a beautiful word, narcosantuario.

Since the original video apparently cannot be embedded in weblogs anymore ( We're sorry, this video is no longer available ) I post this video interpretation of the song by a young student in a film class project.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Often reports made by various intelligence agencies remind me of these lines from Simon & Garfunkel's The Boxer: "...All lies and jest, still the man hears what he wants to hear / and disregards the rest, hmmmm". See here, here, and here. Of course, as a news consumer I am also guilty of regularly disregarding what I do not want to hear, read, see, and know. Still, when it c0mes to Iran's nuclear threat - does or doesn't it exist ? - I would love to believe the Iranians and the IAEA but I tend to have my doubts about their claims and about Teheran's good intentions, which leads me to believe the reports published in the Sunday Telegraph. If only I could trust Israel's leaders to know and choose the proper ways to deal with this issue.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

The Van der Galien Gazette has become the Poligazette, with an entirely new design but made by the same contributors. I will continue to contribute to the gazette every now and then, by crossposting postings that I posted here first or by writing English translations of articles that I wrote for Dutch newspapers and that might be interesting for the readers of the Poligazette as well. EventuallyI intend to start writing pieces particularly for the Gazette as well, but for now this is the small contribution that I am capable of making.

Of the many articles about the Iranian nuclear threat - does it or doesn't it exist? - that I read this week I particularly liked this one, by an Israeli journalist who has followed the subject for many years.
While I do not want to rely on the expertise and impartiality of the UN and Muhammad el-Baradei or on the goodwill of Mr Ahmadinejad for my own and my loved ones' security, entrusting George W. Bush and Ehud Olmert with that same security also gives me an enormous headache. One thing is for sure, the ways in which the wars in Iraq and Lebanon were fought by the US and by Israel strengthened our most ferocious and possibly most dangerous enemies, if only because now those enemies can get much more leeway to build up their forces, their positions and arsenals than they would have received before the winter of 2003 and the summer of 2006. The world sees no reason why this latest report should not be true, even though that same world often dismissed other intelligence reports that said the opposite - and that were just as (un)reliable - as the work of ( Zionist or other evil ) scaremongers. Whom and which reports should we believe? I have no idea. There never was a solid basis for panic but there is also no room for being naive. Very, very cautious optimism might be a good idea, at least for the short term. Being - or starting to be - prepared for every eventuality is not inconistent with trying to achieve your goals through diplomacy.
Ronen Bergman writes: "Israel has been slammed in Washington over the fact that since 2001, in every meeting between an Israeli prime minister and an American president, Israel claimed that Iran is “six months away” from reaching the “technological threshold.” Sources in the American capital say that Israel made a fool of itself while trying to alarm the world. " Instead of continuing to cry wolf - even if there is a very real wolf out there - the Israeli government and military should show - maybe not to the world but at least to the few real allies that the country has left - on what evidence its warnings are based. In other words, put up or shut up! Otherwise Israel's credibility and the trustworthiness of Israeli intelligence, or rather the little that is left of it, will be totally gone. And that would endanger us more than anything else.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Only this week did I hear ( about ) this not brilliant but beautiful and very moving song by Serge Gainsbourg for the first time. When he wrote it, during or after the Six Day war in 1967, apparently as a gift to the state and/or the people of Israel, he was the same age as I am today. I would almost suspect that the song's lyrics - perhaps a bit militarist and overly nationalist to young ears - are meant cynically or sarcastically, but they do seem heartfelt and emotionally genuine. My own Zionist awareness started mainly after the first Lebanon War. Today many of us do not see the Six Day War only as an enormous success, but also as a missed - of course not exclusively by fault of Israel - opportunity with a bad aftertaste. For people of my generation it is hard to imagine the feelings - among Israelis and among most Jews abroad - of suspense and fear that preceded the war of 1967, as well as their feelings of joy and relief when the war was over. By then Israel had been in existence for less than 20 years. Let's also not forget that Gainsbourg was a young Jewish teenager in France during the Holocaust. Here ( posted during the latest Lebanon War ) and here ( an English translation of the lyrics ) are two links to postings about the song, after that I will post a You-Tube version of it.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Yesterday my wife, our 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, and I traveled to the harbor of Jaffa to welcome Sinterklaas, together with several hundred other Dutch and Israeli men, women and children, and the Dutch ambassador in Israel. The event, organized by the Dutch Forum in Israel, was great fun, the children had a wonderful time.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

While experts and others are busy trying to 'convince' us who 'won' at Annapolis ( three examples: here, here, and here, the latter almost sounding like wishful thinking of an extremist who has some of the appearances of a supporter of Israel ) and the Vatican tries to play its usual constructive role in finding a solution for what unfortunately is also - or largely - a religious conflict, I almost forgot that today we should remember an important historical event.

60 years ago the UN voted, through resolution 181 ( 33 for, 13 against, with 10 abstentions ), to partition the British Mandate territory of Palestine into a Jewish and a Palestine state. Yesterday on channel 1 I watched a fascinating documentary about the Jewish-Israeli side of the story of that vote and of what preceded and followed it. It had interviews with some of the few key players in the process who are still alive, plus with the relatives of others, such as the widow of Abba Eban, and the son of Moshe Sharet ( one of the underestimated giants of Zionist history ). Hearing them talk I realized once more that we often fail to appreciate how important the establishment of the state of Israel was for the Jewish people - at that moment in history, and in general - and how easily things could have turned out very differently.

I understand why the partition plan was far from perfect or even totally unacceptable for the Palestinians, but looking at the pictures below ( found at the website of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs ) you have to admit that not accepting the plan was one of the many utterly mistaken decisions that the Palestinian and other Arab 'leaders' made for - or rather against the best interests of - their people and their 'brothers'. Meanwhile so-called supporters of the Palestinian people still waste their, our and the Palestinians' time trying to 'convince' us that the partition plan was unfair, a result of Jewish scheming and lobbying, and unacceptable to Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

On the Face's Lisa wrote some more about Arkadi Gaydamak. Recommended. As one of the commenters on her posting says: "If this man is voted into office, it will truly be a sign of how far downhill our society has gone."

Bernard Lewis shared some of his thoughts on Annapolis with us. He explains very concisely what the unique position of the Palestinians is among the war-refugees of the twentieth century - a position that has been imposed on them largely by their Arab and Muslim 'brothers' and that hardly serves the interest of the Palestinians themselves - and why hardly anyone who supports a two-state solution to the conflict can support the demand for the "return" of those refugees into Israel itself ( i.e. Israel within its 1967 borders ).
PS: Lewis, who has had a tremendous career and expertise, certainly is not averse to controversies. Still, many of those who love to attack him are not less, if not much more biased than he is.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Like most people in Israel I remain skeptical about the chances of success for Annapolis, and I have my doubts about the whole conference making sense. Still, maybe, just maybe, Ehud Olmert and others are right when they say that the mere fact that this circus takes place is in a way a success and a victory. I thought this when this afternoon I was doing some shopping with our two youngest children. In the shopping center I saw a policeman and -woman patrolling, and I noticed some kind of (semi)automatic gun hanging from the man's shoulder, with the magazine inside. I approached the two and asked if there was a reason for these special precautions. They smiled politely and said quietly "Annapolis". Every time that Palestinians or other Arabs are seen talking with Israel, the fanatics, theirs and ours, basically suffer a defeat. I do not have to point out what their victories look like.
PS: In the poll, the latest option does not make sense really. I should have written "It is a waste of time, but 2, 3, and 4".
PPS: This morning I read an interesting analysis of Ehud Barak's behavior towards Olmert and Annapolis.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Although I am not sure what is the exact point that Bradley Burston wants to make in this article, I agree with most of what it says.

An article about one of the more interesting old-new faces that appeared on the MidEast scene recently.

For weeks we have hardly heard anything about the Israeli strike in Syria that was or wasn't. This week the issue received some fresh attention, and Yossi Melman published another interesting article on the subject.

Much has been written about the demand, by Israel's minister for pensioners' affairs Rafi Eitan, for additional payments by Germany to Holocaust survivors in Israel. This article appeared the other day, I agree with almost every word in it.

Two excellent postings by one of my favorite Israeli bloggers, On the Face's Lisa Goldman: one that starts with sugar packets but in fact deals with two of the greatest threats that Israel faces ( social injustice and our indifference to it ), the other about the lack of Israeli interest in what is really happening in Lebanon.

Islam is not the only religion that excels in injustice towards women and minorities, but many of its followers seem to do their best to make their religion a champion in that field.

PS: This posting was written on Wednesday, but I posted it by mistake on my parallel blog, where I normally only post articles for reference and future use.

Monday, November 19, 2007

More than a month ago somebody sent me a link to this article at the Britannica Blog. I must admit that I forgot about it, but when I cleaned up my mailbox I had another look at the article and remembered what I thought when I read it for the first time: it remains amazing to see how some people are still fascinated ( positively, as opposed to obessed ) by this country. It would be good if we ourselves realized once in a while that we still have a lot to be thankful for and fascinated about. Many of our curses are self-inflicted, and they do not annul our blessings. The article's writer, Michael Bard, is the author of Will Israel survive? ( The answer that he gives to his own book's title is a sound yes, by the way ).

Yet another proof of how the occupation, Islamist terror, hatred, and fear - no matter how genuine and justified - have eroded our basic humane values. You should also have a look at the talkbackers' comments.

A wonderful article by an outstanding scientist about what he rightly calls the real Iranian threat. Unless Israel changes dramatically and drastically a nuclear Iran will be one of our least worries.

Ehud Olmert comparing himself to David Ben-Gurion. Talking about a lack of taste, of perspective, and of perception.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Since I am actually writing my PhD thesis ( finally ) and preparing another short stay in Holland ( for a book that I will be writing in the next two months ), my weblog will be put on the backburner once again. In the meantime here are some good cartoons on Darfur, the Hamas-Fatah civil war, on Israel's non-policy regarding the Palestinians, and on American non-policy regarding the MidEast. I found most of these cartoons, not all of them very recent, through this link.

Berend Vonk ( VN = UN )

Chappatte ( Le Temps, Geneve ): "Now that you are powerless, in your rump-state, I will be happy to help you"

Kal ( The Economist )

Haddad ( Al Hayat ): "I am hungry!"

Gada ( Daily Nation, Nairobi )

Chappatte ( Le Temps, Geneve ): " We see a Lebanonization of Iraq, an Iraqization of Palestine, and a Palestinization of Lebanon! "

Thursday, November 08, 2007

One of the many best songs by one of my three favorite female Israeli singers ( the other two are Nehama Hendel z"l and Ahinoam Nini ( Noa ) ). I did not know that Chava Alberstein sang this song already so early in her long career.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

The birthday cakes that my wife made for the birthday party of our son who since last Friday is 5 years old, for his friend and classmate who will celebrate her fifth birthday with him tomorrow, and for our youngest son who had his first birthday almost two weeks ago. The children's names on the cakes were erased.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Normally, when I post a cartoon that means that I think it is very good or funny. This cartoon is not one of DryBones' best or funniest ( in fact, I am not exactly a DB fan, although sometimes he hits the nail on the head very well ), I post it only because it states an obvious truth that has special relevance on this day of the year. As you can see, it was published a few weeks after Rabin was murdered.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

This very moment I am watching television. Hatikvah, Israel's national anthem, is sung at the manifestation in memory of the life and murder of Yitzhak Rabin z"l. According to the police more than 150,000 people were at the Rabin Square and in the surrounding streets. Ahinoam Nini's performance of "We'll touch the dream" was beautiful, as was the speech by Rabin's son Yuval, who is not known for his eloquence and who until this evening never gave such a public speech. Layla tov, and shavua tov.

The Scream, a monument by Jeroen Henneman for director and columnist Theo van Gogh, who was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan Islamist, on November 2nd 2004 in Amsterdam. As I wrote in an article for the Dutch daily Friesch Dagblad on Thursday, his murder and that of Yitzhak Rabin ( on November 4th 1995, by a religious extremist who is not less fanatic than Mohammed B. ) are remembered in the same week. In 2005 I wrote an article ( sorry, it is in Dutch ) about two parallels between the two murders and the aftermath of each of them. Not only did both murderers obtain at least some of their goals ( polarization and alienation in the Netherlands, polarization and a lack of any perspective towards peace in Israel ), in both countries a dangerous level of understanding for the murderers' despicable acts has been and continues to be expressed, in parallel ways, sometimes by highly reasonable people: "Of course the act of Yigal A./Mohammed B. is wrong and should be condemned, but hey, Rabin/Van Gogh should not have angered and frustrated so many people in the first place."

"Hanging someone with a royal decoration? We don't do that in Iran!" "No, we use a rope."

Joep Bertrams: Iranian Justice

In May 2006 Faleh Abdoullah al-Mansouri, president of the Ahwazi Liberation Organisation (ALO), which aims at independence for an Arab minority in the Khuzestan province in Iran, was arrested in Syria. A few days later he was handed over to the Iranians. His case would probably not have attracted much attention if he had not been ( in addition to his Iranian citizenship, if I am not mistaken ) a Dutch citizen ( who received a royal decoration for his work on human rights ) and an active member of Amnesty International in Maastricht. Last week there were persistent rumors that Al-Mansouri was sentenced to death and that his execution was imminent. This led to protests which united political groups and individuals who hardly ever agree on anything. Each of those protesters had his or her own reasons for showing support for Al-Mansouri or opposition to the regime in Teheran. I saw rightwing populist Geert Wilders standing next to members of the leftwing populist Socialist Party, and I also saw a show of support for Al-Mansouri and Ahwazi independence, as well as for Iran, on the website of the anti-Semitic Arab European League. I particularly was impressed with the way in which the latter explained its stance on the issue: "Al Ahwaz is part of the Arab world [...] Iran is an ally in the important struggle against the imperialist project of America and Israel and therefore has our support and dedication. We struggle of al-Ahwaz and the behavior of the Iranians we criticize as friends. During the essential struggle in the Arab and the Muslim world against a ruthless enemy it is important that we keep the ranks closed. [...] Only the neocolonial project profits from Al-Mansouri's death sentence. [...] Weakening Iran is a bloodletting/drain for our struggle in the whole Arab world." Clearly the AEL gets the meanings of Arab and Muslim mixed up.

Anyway, the Iranians have denied that Mansouri was sentenced to death. It is not known where he is held, since his arrest neither his family nor the Dutch authorities have had contact with him. As soon as rumors about his imminent execution started three Dutch cartoonists expressed their views on the justice system in Iran. These excellent cartoons were the main reason for this posting.